Mercedes
Russell looked quick again in final practice, and impressed in the early stages of Qualifying. But when everyone upped the anti late on in Q3, Russell did not quite have the pace to compete for the front two rows. The margins were tight though – Russell was just 0.019s behind Leclerc. As for Antonelli, he had to use two sets of softs to get through Q1, as he struggled with tyre warm up. But he had got the hang of things by Q3, and made his one lap on new softs count as he bagged a best result of the season.
George Russell, 5th, 1:27.318
“Finishing P5 definitely feels like an underachievement for us today. We have looked strong all weekend and I believe we had a car that could have been in the fight for the front row. Unfortunately, we just didn’t bring the lap together at the critical moment. As the session progressed, the track was getting cooler. For our final effort, the tyres were a little too cold starting the lap and I had a big moment at turn two. That cost me a couple of tenths and I was unable to improve on my first effort.
“Whilst we are naturally disappointed, P5 is not a terrible place to start. We’ve had good pace all weekend and I am feeling confident in the car. Let’s see what the weather conditions bring tomorrow but, wet or dry, I think we can be in contention for a podium. If it is wet, this is an even more challenging circuit. We saw in Melbourne just how chaotic a race can get so, whatever the circumstances, we will be looking to take advantage.”
Kimi Antonelli, 6th, 1:27.555
“I am happy with how my session went. I wasn’t putting the lap together as I knew I needed to throughout practice. I didn’t have a huge amount of confidence therefore going into Qualifying, but we kept working hard at it. Bono has been a great support, along with Valtteri who has been giving me plenty of advice. I managed to make progress lap-by-lap and P6 is not a bad result in the end. There was definitely more performance to find in the car; I was still struggling a little with sector one. If I had improved that, then maybe we could have started slightly further ahead. Nevertheless, I am still pleased with what we were able to extract from the car. There are a lot of positives to take away, along with the learnings of where I can improve.
“I am looking forward to tomorrow. With the forecast, it could be an interesting race ahead. I certainly wouldn’t mind a little bit of rain! I have a lot of data to look through tonight to see where we can make further improvements. I will continue to build my confidence around the track and hopefully we can bring home some good points tomorrow.”
Bradley Lord, Team Representative
“Qualifying left us with mixed feelings. George has delivered a strong weekend, running in the top three almost every time he has been on track. In the cooling temperatures at the end of the session however, his lap just didn’t come together. He lost over two tenths in turn two and, although he made gains later in the lap, they weren’t enough to improve on his initial effort. That left him P5 as others jumped forward. He can be confident of challenging those ahead tomorrow though given the pace he has shown so far here at Suzuka.
“For Kimi, the weekend has been about building his performance step by step. It has been challenging to find a good rhythm because of the many red flags in practice, so Qualifying was the first time he could really put all the pieces together. He improved on every run, and P6 is a good reward for him – his best F1 qualifying position so far, and at the front of a very closely matched group of cars.
“We therefore start from row three tomorrow, with the possibility that the race will be affected by rain in the forecast. This is always a demanding race for the cars and the drivers in the dry and even more so if it’s wet; we will need to be at our best if we wish to make progress against the cars in front.”
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director
“George is understandably frustrated with P5. Practically every lap he has done this weekend has put him in the top three, and most of the time in the top two. On his final run, we targeted temperatures that were too low on the out lap, and he lacked grip through the first few corners. That caused a snap at turn two which effectively ruined the lap. It’s some encouragement that the car is working better here but we should have done more with it today.
“On Kimi’s side, he’s been on a steep learning curve on this circuit from the very first session on Friday. He was finding enough with each run to get through to Q3 and put together a strong lap to line up alongside George on the grid tomorrow.
“We’re expecting some rain overnight and into the morning, although it’s not clear yet whether it’s going to be a wet race. If it is, then the qualifying position isn’t terribly important. What will determine our finishing result will be good communications and decision making. If it’s dry, then we’re still in a strong position to fight for a podium if the race pace is as solid as it looked on Friday. Let’s see what tomorrow brings.”
